Luxembourg, 19/10/2009 (Agence Europe) - The Fisheries Ministers of the Member States of the EU negotiated throughout the night of Monday 19 October to reach a political agreement on a proposal to reinforce the monitoring and control of the rules of the CFP (common fisheries policy). An initial compromise text was presented to the ministers in the morning, then trilateral meetings (Presidency, Commission and Member States of the EU) were held throughout the afternoon. A final compromise text was to be drafted and presented through the night, ahead of a compromise in the early hours of the morning.
There was no lack of controversy over the control regulation. The trickiest of these concern the following: - "recreational" fishing: United Kingdom and Germany, among others, are opposed to the proposal to deduct leisure fishing catch from the national fishing quota; - the automatic vessel identification system which is obligatory for fishing vessels more than 15 meters in length: the initial compromise text provides that the Member States can use the automatic identification system for the purposes verification, together with other available data; - prior notice: under the proposed text (which has caused problems on this issue for the Spanish), the captains of Community fishing vessels of 12 meters in length or more "engaged in fisheries which are covered by reconstitution plans" and which are obliged to keep an electronic log must communicate certain information to the competent authorities of Member States whose ports or landing places they wish to use, at least four hours before the estimated time of arrival at the port (vessel identification, name of designated destination port and final port of the stopover, estimated date and time of arrival at the port, quantities of each fish species held on board, etc);- catch registration; - penalty points system (duration of licence suspension once a certain number of points has been reached has been reduced in the compromise text compared to the initial draft, and a licence will not be withdrawn definitively until it has been suspended on four occasions); - deduction of quotas in the event of overfishing.
The talks will also decide on the date for the entry into force of the new regulation, which the Commission would like to set at 1 January 2010, whilst a great many countries are calling for 2011 or 2012. (L.C./trans.fl)